Jail for man who smashed up car with kids inside

A man who was one of a gang that smashed a car with bats while a two-year-old girl was sitting in it has been sentenced to four years with the final two and half suspended.

David McDonnell (aged 31) previously of Rathvilly Park, Finglas, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to violent disorder in Finglas on April 15, 2011. He has 36 previous convictions for road traffic offences and has since moved out of the Finglas area.

Garda Mark Reilly told Anne Rowland BL, prosecuting that the child’s mother, who was two months pregnant at the time, had left the girl in the car along with her eight- and 10-year-old sisters, while she went into Tesco to shop for the family.

She was alerted to a problem when the older girl came towards the shop screaming “someone is breaking up the car”.

When the woman rushed out, she saw her baby, who was still harnessed in her car seat, screaming while two to three men were smashing up the vehicle with bats.

She shouted at the men to let her get her daughter out but she was struck on the back of the legs with bats while she was leaning into the car to free the child. A passerby leaned in through another door at the same time and managed to get the child out.

Gda Reilly said McDonnell was then “right up in the woman’s face” as she turned away from the car and he made threats against her husband.

She told him he did not need to attack the car with her children in it, before McDonnell was brought to a car by another man and that vehicle then sped off.

Gda Reilly told Judge Martin Nolan that there had been a “family feud” in the area at the time and the group “had some gripe with the woman’s husband”.

The woman, who cannot be named to protect the identity of her children, told Ms Rowland that she witnessed something that day that no mother should have to.

“There was glass coming down onto her (the baby) and I kept thinking she was going to get a rap from a bat. I can’t forget it. It only would have taken me five minutes to get the baby out of the car,” the woman said.

“I was really afraid for my child’s safety. I will never forget it,” she continued.

She said she was also in fear of losing the child she was pregnant with and remained afraid until the baby was born seven months later.

The woman told the court that her children have since suffered with nightmares and wake up screaming. One of her daughters is now wetting the bed.

She said the children are also now afraid to get into her car or to go to the shops and she had to change where she did the weekly shopping.

Pieter Le Vert BL, defending told the woman that she was “absolutely correct” that no person or parent should have to witness what she did that day and said his client wanted to offer his apologies for his involvement.

Gda Reilly agreed with Mr Le Vert that his client had co-operated with the gardaí and had expressed his remorse and shame for what happened.

Mr Le Vert said McDonnell was a member of the travelling community who had a problem with drugs. He has since started to get help for his addiction and has moved from the Finglas area.

Judge Nolan accepted that the men did not intend to injure the children but said they had been reckless.

He said both the children’s mother and the passerby had shown a “a good degree of courage” in getting the toddler out of the car and added that the woman must have felt forced to do so for the sake of her child’s safety.

Judge Nolan said McDonnell was part of the group but accepted he had a lesser role. He suspended the final two and half years of the four year term.